Asia just overtook Europe in wealth for the first time in centuries — and North America is next

The Asia-Pacific region steamed past Europe in terms of private
financial wealth in 2014, according to estimates released by
Boston Consulting Group on Monday.

In 2014, BCG estimates that eastern and western Europe combined
had a private wealth of $42.5 trillion, beaten by Asia-Pacific's
rapidly growing pile, now worth $47.3 trillion. The Asia-Pacific
figures exclude Japan, which gets its own estimate.

BCG doesn't provide a long-run estimate for when the last time
Asia-Pacific was likely wealthier than Europe. The report has
been produced for 15 years, but given the performance of the two
continents throughout history, it's likely to have been hundreds
of years since Asia came out on top.

That goes all the way back to a period in history known as the
Great Divergence. During the industrial revolution and even
before, European wealth and living standards
overtook previously more prosperous Asian civilisations.

Here's how the distribution
looks:

BCG

With Asian private wealth growing much more quickly than North
American or European wealth, the Asia-Pacific region is expected
to keep building on its current position. By 2019, BCG expect
Asia to have more than a third of the $222 trillion global total.

They also expect that Asian financial wealth will surpass the
North America's by 2016 — in fact, including Japan, Asia is
already the wealthiest region in the world.

Here's what BCG's report says on the global trends:

From a regional, the growth of private wealth continued in most
markets in 2014, but at significantly different rates. A strong
"old world versus new world" dynamic was observed, with the
so-called new world growing at a far faster pace.

Here's how fast each region grew in 2014, and BCG's estimate of
its total financial wealth.